Turning 65

Today I walked on South Hill Recreation Way from 8 to 9:30 am, then headed to Taughannock Falls State Park to escape the heat (95 degrees in Ithaca this afternoon). I swam in Cayuga Lake a couple of times, read the New York Times, worked the crossword puzzle, and fell asleep in the shade of a locust tree. Foolishly, I neglected to apply sunscreen and the locust shade, being only partial, did not keep me from getting a sunburn on my face. In spite of the sunburn, though, I had a good birthday. Never too old to do foolish things, am I.

O Thistle

The volunteer thistle on the edge of the driveway is back and blooming. Among the most beautiful of flowers, there are the thistles, round scaly spheres bursting with violet. Riding on four-foot spiny stems. Later the seeds are favored by goldfinches.

Investing in the Golf

Just passed through a decision point with the VW Golf. We looked at and Jane test drove one of the new Golfs. Then decided to invest more in the existing car--new tires, fixing the coolant leak and the leaky head gasket. Feels good, once we made the decision. Greener.

Recovery

Slowly but surely recovering from surgery for a tear in the medial meniscus of my right knee. Had a lovely pre-surgery trip to the city and finally got to walk the High Line. Lots of gardening inspiration there. Went to a terrific dance concert in Chelsea with Anna and Kate. And witnessed Kate getting her Masters degree in early childhood education at Hunter College. Momofuku, lots of other good food.

Spring snow

Contrary to my expectations we did get some snow today--mostly air snow. During our South Hill walk we saw thick flakes looking beautiful against the bright green leaves where they landed. After a lot (say two months) of warmer than usual weather, the Canadian air has blown us some very chilly, gray weather. Gray because of the lake-effect snow and rain showers and cloudiness. The cold winds blowing over the slightly warmer lake water are picking up a lot of moisture. Our good old Great Lakes.

The high winds brought down some good-sized maple branches in the neighborhood last night and today. When we returned after watching a sneak preview of a 1993 Cornell graduate's movie, Easy A, last night, we discovered that the wind had taken out the top of our Norway maple in the side yard and deposited it on Water Street. We got a goodly amount of firewood out of the deal--sawing away with our bow saws like little beavers chewing up wood. Then tonight just before dark I discovered a large sugar maple branch downed by the wind and harvested more firewood from it. Nothing like a good windstorm to replenish our supplies. A year or so drying under the back porch will turn it into prime firewood.

Learning Spanish

Just back from my evening Spanish class. I've been taking an intermediate conversation class twice a week at Cornell since the first week of February. The instructor is a lively man who is fond of literature and music and has been using both extensively in the class. It's challenging. I'll have a bad class, but it's usually followed by a good one. A bad class is one when I can't understand the question the instructor is asking me in Spanish. Or I don't understand the story we have read well enough to answer coherently.

But it's good for me to take on the work. It will pay off on the next trip to Chile. Hopefully this coming northern hemisphere winter/southern hemisphere summer. Every once in a while I will understand a whole sentence. Triumph. More often it's a game of approximation. How much can I understand? My progress is slow but, still, progress. I expect to keep learning Spanish, off and on, indefinitely. I want to be fluent.

trees that smell like mushrooms

When I walked on campus tonight, I approached a long double line of ornamental plum trees in full bloom. Meanwhile I was looking around for the mushroom compost or mulch that I was smelling. It helped that I was listening to Radio Lab at the time and so was distracted from my usual perception of the environment. Then the light dawned--it was the tree blossoms that smelled like mushrooms. I had not connected the smell of those trees with the smell of mushrooms before.